The Final Day – Day 100: Eating Well On $1 A Day

It is hard to believe that I have reached the 100 day milestone. Even more surprising is that the eating well on $1 a day has gone so well that I don’t feel any desire to immediately change the way that I have been eating (or that my cooking didn’t result in mt poisoning myself in some way). It has become a routine and the fact that it has tells me that it is possible to do this long term if I had the desire. After thinking long and hard about all the comments that readers have made, I have decided to stop the current challenge at 100 days and focus instead on buying as much food as possible for food banks with the $1 a day. There are a number of reasons for this decision:

I Think I Succeeded: I think that even my sister will now admit that I was able to make meals that others would eat (at least from time to time) while staying under the $1 a day goal. I don’t need to do this another year to make the point that it can be done.

Change Of Focus: While the last 100 days have been focused on me and how I was able to do this, I would like to see future posts focused more how anyone that reads this blog can save a lot of money over what they are currently spending on food while still getting exactly what they want and also being able to give excess to their local food banks. I already know that I can do it — I am now interested in showing anyone that wants to learn that they can also do it.

I’m Not A Foodie: No matter how much I would like to be one, I am not a foodie. I still do not enjoy cooking much. Even though it has been a great experience and I have learned a lot (I would like to sincerely thank everyone that took the time to pass along suggestions and recipes), and my cooking skills have slowly but surely improved, I don’t think that I have much more to offer in this area. I would still be perfectly satisfied eating the same thing over and over again, but that certainly doesn’t make for very interesting reading.

So from now on I will be using the $1 a day (and the excess that I have accumulated from the first 100 days) to buy food for local food banks. In addition I will be detailing exactly how I approach couponing and what I have learned about it over these last 3 months. I’m hoping that this will help answer many of the questions that people have had about how I was able to do this and encourage them to do the same.

Yellow Cherry Plum Smoothie

I couldn’t begin the last day of this challenge with anything other than a morning smoothie. I gathered up the rest of the yellow cherry plums that I had:

added a frozen banana and a few cubes of ice to make another delicious start to the morning.

This is definitely one of the things that I will continue to do on a daily basis as it has really made the start of my days a lot easier and given me more energy and focus in the mornings.

The afternoon was busy as usual and I went with the usual afternoon sandwich.

Roasted Stuffed Peppers

I decided to use the last two halves of the green and red peppers I had to make stuffed roasted peppers. I took leftover brown long grain rice I had and mixed in salsa:

Then added shredded cheddar Monterrey Jack cheese mix as well:

To prepare the peppers, I boiled them for 5 minutes and placed a light coating of vegetable oil on the outside. I then filled them with the rice, salsa and cheese mixture:

I placed them in the oven and roasted them for about 40 minutes:

The green roasted pepper came out delicious:

I was planning to save the red roasted pepper, but I couldn’t resist and had it as well:

Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream

To celebrate, I thought that for a final treat, I would go out and buy myself a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream since I failed to get it when I completed the first month, but when I thought about it a bit more, I knew the perfect way to end the 100 days. I took the rest of the frozen bananas and began to blend them, then added a large spoonful of peanut butter:

And when I finished I had the perfect dessert, this is what it looked like:

Of course, I had to give my sister a taste of it and of course, she thought it was awful — I’m starting to think that she may be the one who is palate challenged since I find it hard to believe that anyone finds the peanut butter and banana combination anything but delicious.

I thank all of you that have followed along for the last 100 days and hope that you enjoyed reading about the experience as I had going through it (Time Magazine recently did an interview with me) and hope that the next phase focusing on how I was able to do it will be helpful and worth reading as well.

I would love to hear what all of you have thought about this adventure 🙂

Most coupons will say “one coupon per transaction” — what this means is that you can only use one manufacturer coupon per item you buy. If you have 5 items, then you can use 5 coupons (one for each item).

I just came upon your blog today via a link from another blog (Lifehacker maybe?). So far I’ve only read the first 30 days plus a few random entries after that but I wanted to say that what you’ve done is really impressive.

It’s funny to me that your sister bashed your first 30 days’ food so much. Yes, there were a couple of things in there that were questionable, but for the most part you ate simple, very edible food. You ate better than a vast majority of people in the world ever eat.

A lot of the things you made were very similar to the types of food I cook for every-day meals (various combinations of steamed veggies, rice and beans). Though I do really enjoy cooking and using a lot of interesting ingredients, simple food is what gets people through the day.

I took my entire Saturday to read the entire 100 days! I loved it and I’m motivated to cut my food budget and give to others in the process. I just have one question…one thing I some how missed…WHAT WHAT THE MYSTERY PURCHASE AND WHAT DID YOU DO WITH IT? LOL…

Obviously I am coming very late to the cast of commenters on your adventures in eating well on $1 day. I discovered your blogs long after the challenge was completed.

Kudos on all you were able to achieve in the course of 100 days.

I would suggest that perhaps your sister deserves a note of appreciation as the prod for you to begin the challenge in the first place. Thanks to her sisterly ability to push your buttons and your brotherly need to prove you could do it, you have:

* Written a highly candid, amusing, inspirational and informative blog recording the adventure that has spread the word around the world…

* Motivated others to begin/return to couponing with the goal of reducing their own expenditures and assisting their local foodbanks on a more frequent basis…

* Gained a new skill set – specifically the ability to actually COOK for yourself rather than merely assembling a pb&b sandwich 5 times a day. Nothing wrong with sandwiches, just so empowering to know you can prepare a hot meal for yourself and others…

* Improved your own dietary habits (you mentioned your reduced sugar intake)…and, generally speaking, your snacks were within the realm of good nutrition from what you mentioned. I am a big believer in smaller meals/portions spaced throughout the day.

Thank you for sharing! Be well and happy! Continue to spread your light, please.